You're listening to an Airwave Media podcast.

Hello and welcome to Ben Franklin's World Revisited,

the series of classic episodes that bring fresh perspective to our latest episodes

and had deeper connections to our understanding

of early American history.

And I'm your host, Liz Covart.

April 2025 marks the 250th anniversary

of the battles of Lexington and Concord.

These battles weren't just the first military engagements

of the revolution.

They were the culmination of rising tensions,

political maneuvering,

and acts of defiance that stretched back years before April 19, 1775.

Now, one of the lesser-known catalysts for these battles was the hunt for artillery.

The British military, under General Thomas Gage, sought to seize weapons stockpiled by colonial militias,

while Massachusetts revolutionaries scrambled to secure and hide weapons.

This tug of war over firepower played a crucial role in pushing Massachusetts from political

resistance to armed conflict. Now, to better understand how Massachusetts got to this point,

we're revisiting episode 129, The Road to Concord, with historian J.L. Bell. John is the author of The Road to Concord,

how four-stolen cannon ignited the Revolutionary War. He's also the prolific blogger behind

Boston-1775.net. In this episode, John reveals the aftermath of the Boston Tea Party and how Parliament

responded with the coercive acts, the Massachusetts Government Act, and why it sparked widespread

...